Don't Expect a Disney Animated Movie Set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Any Time Soon

When it was first announced that Disney was purchasing Marvel, the minds of many fans leapt immediately to the possibility of a Disney-Pixar animated Marvel movie. We're sorta getting that in November with 'Big Hero 6' but as that movie approaches, it's become very clear that it's not really much of Marvel movie at all, other than being loosely based on the obscure 90s comic. What fans really want to know is if we'll ever see a Disney or Pixar animated movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. John Lasseter, who runs both Disney Animation and Pixar, has your answer: no.

When asked by Vulture if he or anyone on his team had ever had talks with Marvel about collaborating on a project, Lasseter answered bluntly, "No, we haven’t." And, it's this next quote that makes us think those talks will never happen either. "If we went directly into the Marvel Universe, that would mean we’d work more directly with Marvel," as if that were a bad thing.

Now, Lasseter didn't expressly say that would be a bad thing, but let's be honest: Marvel had a hard time collaborating with Edgar Wright on 'Ant-Man'. We can't imagine they'd be willing to give themselves over creatively to Disney Animation or Pixar just because they're owned by the same parent corporation. Feige recently told AICN, "We'd never give a director final cut, just as a matter of policy...The whole purpose of becoming our own studio was to be able to make the decisions; this studio was founded on having creative say." If they're not going to give an outside director final cut, we can't imagine they'd afford that level of control over to Pixar either.

And, frankly, that's the way Disney wants it to. Lasseter was quick to add that 'Big Hero 6', while being "inspired" by a Marvel comic, "without question, was made 100 percent here."

Pixar and Marvel are both strong creative forces, neither of which would be willing to budge much to the others whims. And, frankly, that's OK. Corporate synergy is great, but not everything needs to crossover with everything else.